2035.000 Protea L.

Erect or prostrate suffrutices, shrubs or trees, up to 8 m. Leaves alternate or clustered near the ends of the branches simple, entire. Flowers in dense heads, surrounded by a conspicuous many-seriate involucre of bracts; bracts spirally arranged, very small in the outer series to as large as the flowers in the inner, sometimes brightly coloured. Style terminated by a linear pollen-presenter. Fruit an obconic achene, with the long straight brown hairs persistent.

Worldwide: c. 100 species in the tropics and S Africa